Officer Suspended Over Internet Use

OLD SAYBROOK — The police commission has suspended Officer Chris DeMarco for 45 days without pay for excessive use of the Internet, including considerable time spent on pornographic sites.

The specifics of the settlement agreement, hammered out Monday night between attorneys for the police union and the town in a commission session that lasted nearly three hours, were released Tuesday by Deputy Police Chief Thomas O'Brien. Attorneys withheld the deal from the public Monday night.

Also made public for the first time Tuesday was the notice of charges against DeMarco. O'Brien said he came across DeMarco's use of the Internet during a time management study and denied charges by police officers that DeMarco had been singled out.

O'Brien said his time management study examined the period that began at the end of July 2002 through December 2002. The study was designed to determine how best to use the idle time of officers assigned to the desk on the midnight shift. Because the state is requiring that by next year two dispatchers be on duty at the same time, O'Brien said Chief Edmund Mosca wanted to avoid ``two guys staring at each other with nothing to do.''

Internet use was part of the study, and O'Brien said DeMarco's use was the last reviewed. ``When I became aware he was viewing hard-core pornography, I concentrated on him,'' O'Brien said Tuesday.

Union attorneys asked for but did not receive records of other officers' Internet usage, said union attorney Chuck Norris Tuesday. ``The administration wanted termination of Chris for using the Internet during hours when the policy says police officers are allowed to watch television while sitting at the dispatch desk. ... Then they give someone a hard time for using the Internet. It's not a coincidence they sought to fire Chris DeMarco,'' said Norris.

There is no policy prohibiting use of the Internet, officers say.

But, in his notice of charges to DeMarco, O'Brien cited written department policies that prohibit receipt of obscene information or use of the Internet to the extent that it affects work productivity.

DeMarco is charged with violating the Internet policy ``by spending excessive amounts of time on websites, including pornographic sites, which were unrelated to the performance of police duties.''

The report emphasized about 20 hours during the five-month period that was studied when DeMarco apparently left patrol duty to return to headquarters and used the Internet.

``Accessing pornography for personal reasons while on duty discredits you as an officer and reflects badly on the department,'' O'Brien wrote in his charges.

The settlement reached Monday night requires DeMarco to have a psychiatric evaluation by a medical professional experienced in evaluating behavior such as that manifested by people who frequent pornographic websites.

In the 35 years that Police Commission Chairman Ernest Sparaco has been on the panel, there has never been a hearing for disciplinary action against an officer. The chief requested this one because he has authority to suspend an officer only up to 10 days and needs a commission hearing for more severe discipline or dismissal.

In the 38 years that Mosca and O'Brien have run the department, officers have been disciplined in-house or let go mainly by requests for letters of resignation, officers and O'Brien said.